The Unconventional Lives of Organization XIII
by Kurai Hiruma
Summary: What happens when the rebelling Namine joins up with government's most wanted criminal group, Organization XIII? Disaster? Or just the perfect kinda living? Will her quest to learn more about her past end in success? Or just take everything on a turn for the worst? Namixas
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS.**

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_Organization XIII..._

I loved the way it sounded, the way it rolled off my tongue.

At night, I would stare out my window over the city and into the distant hills of Twilight Town.

I always loathed them,

the Organization,

they would go _where_ they wanted,

_when_ they wanted.

They would fight _off_ and fight _back_ at anything that bothered them, anything that bothered _anybody_,

and they had the one thing, the _only_ thing, I ever wanted;

**_Freedom._**

And I knew the _**perfect**_ way to get it...

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**I hope you guys liked it! I'm uploading the first chapter right after this~**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Prude Aunts and The Idea in 7th Heaven

**Hey you guys!**

**Thanks for reading past the prologue, it means a lot! *le thumbs up***

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS**

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**Chapter 2:**

_**Prude Aunts and The Idea in 7th Heaven**_

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"Namine! Keep your elbows off of the table!" My aunt nudged me, "It's rude!"

"Sorry, Aunt Margret."I sighed, solemnly removing my elbows from the table. I was currently in the middle of one of my routine courtesy lessons; I've always hated them, ever since I little.

"Namine! You're not suppose to wipe the spaghetti sauce _all over_ your napkin! Only _one corner_ at a time, so the napkin doesn't look like a complete mess!" She snatched my napkin from my hand, quickly replacing it with a new clean one from a basket sitting on a chair next to her, "You must do it like this, watch me, Namine." Aunt Margret then gently dabbed her mouth with a neatly folded napkin, only the very tip left red with tomato sauce. I just rolled my eyes.

"See?" She turned to look at me, I was now trying to shove a big fork full of spaghetti into my mouth, the giant mound twirled delicately on the fork. "Namine!"

'_That's the third time she's yelled my name like that today..._'

"Yes?" I replied mockingly, my fork still hanging in mid air, just before my mouth, with the dangerously tipsy amount of spaghetti on the top. A bit of annoyance was evident in my voice but my aunt didn't seem to notice.

"Namine! Your utensil! That is _no way_ to hold your silverware, young lady!" I could tell my aunt was angry, it was clear in her voice, "You straighten up your posture this instant, young lady! And put that utensil down while you're at it!"

"It's called a _fork_!" I spat angrily, "And _NO!_ I'm _starving!_" I quickly brought the fork towards my mouth again, the food on top wiggling uneasily at the sudden movement.

"Don't. You. _Dare!_" My aunt had latched her hand over mine, preventing my hand from any further movement. We made eye contact, me giving her a death glare and a slight smirk, before I purposefully tipped the fork to the side and let the messy wad of food fall.

My aunt stared, mouth agape as I winced ahead of time, knowing what would come once this was over. The spaghetti landed with a loud thud on my plate, spaghetti sauce flying onto anything within one foot radius of my plate, to be specific; my dress, along with my aunt's, the table cloth, my face, and all over the pile of clean napkins.

I wanted with all my heart to burst into obnoxiously loud fits of laughter; there was spaghetti sauce everywhere, including my _aunt_! But I knew what was awaiting me when I was to look up.

_SLAP! _The force of my aunt's hand on my delicate face stung more than anyone could imagine, "Go up to your room, and wipe that smirk off of your face while you're at it." That wasn't a suggestion, and I knew it, that was an_ order_. One that I _absolutely_ had to follow. Standing up gently, as to not knock anything else over, I ran up to my room.

I quickly slammed the door as hard as I could, feeling a rush of annoyance at the familiar sound and my aunt's yelling from downstairs. Swiftly dropping the dress to the floor, I was reminded of how it was one of those way-too-frilly-to-even-be-called-a-dress dresses, and how I couldn't possibly care less as I left it there in the center of my floor. Flinging open my closet door to reveal a long row of those_ 'dresses'_, I quickly, as to get the infernal things out of my sight, pushed them to the edge of my closet to reveal a small set of clothes that I found suitable; things like tank tops, shorts, bikinis, loose t shirts, long yoga pants, sneakers, flip flops, etc.

Smiling, I picked out my white denim short shorts and my favorite puffy pastel blue spaghetti strap blouse that always fit around my body perfectly. Over this, I slipped on a large shirt, hiding the cute outfit out completely, and vaulted onto my bed. I grabbing the knob to my desk, which sat conveniently next to my bed, and pulled revealing a stack of papers, notebooks and magazines. I grabbed a magazine just below the top notebook, '_Hidden perfectly._' I thought triumphantly.

Pulling myself up to lean against my headboard, I stared at the front of the magazine; there was a picture of a guy with spiky red hair running like mad away from another guy with dark blue hair that fell in front of his right eye, the red head was holding a large book over his head, he looked like he was cackling madly, while the boy behind him had an angry and annoyed glare on his face, mouth open, probably yelling something demeaning at the man in front of him. I giggled, this was my favorite magazine, it's called Opt Out.

Flipping through the pages, I saw another lot of pictures, a lot of them making me want to burst out laughing, the magazine is mostly based on a secret underground group called Organization XIII, they fight against everything that the people in charge were doing wrong, which mostly meant things resulting combat, but also stealing back things that should never have been stolen, finishing a fight for two groups who can't on their own, etc.

They are really helping out with a lot of things that were fucked up in this world, and they were the only ones who had the courage and strength to fix it! Though the government would try and shut them down, and everyone who has power, or ever had power, is after them for revenge for ruining their plans to take over the Worlds.

And I admire them for that, for their ability to act out and be whoever they wanted to be, do whatever they wanted to do, and fight for what they believe in.

I thought about this as I flipped through the pages of the magazine, giggling along with the people I admire so much in the pictures when I sighed, "This is last month's issue, it feels like I've been looking at this for forever now, but it still hasn't gotten old..." Right then, something flickered in my mind, quickly flipping the magazine to the back I scanned it for the date, "May 31st, 2010...!" Something inside me became lighter, my heart? My stomach? It doesn't matter, it was June 30th! A month since the last issue came out, I would be getting the next issue tonight! I am_so_ excited!

Looking over at the clock, I saw it was around 10 p.m., then looking at my door, I could faintly hear familiar foot steps coming down the hall, '_Aunt.._.' As I spent a few seconds wallowing in my pure hatred for the woman, the realization dawned on me, along with the panic. Jumping off my bed, I slid the dresses in the closet back to where they were, shut the door, hung up the 'dress' from on the floor to the knob of my closet, threw the magazine back in my desk drawer, slid it shut, leaped in bed to face way from the door, and threw covers over myself, just in time for Aunt to open the door, check on me, and leave again, shutting my door and locking it from the outside.

* * *

I lay in bed, quiet as the unoccupied floor boards in my room, for almost a half an hour until I heard the familiar sound of the squeaking floorboard outside of my aunt's room and then the gentle shut and latch of her door. I sprung out of bed, suddenly more alive then ever.

"Finally!" I whispered, giving an exasperated sigh, "I thought she would _never_ go to bed!" I would have to be a bit late to Tifa's tonight.

In two quick seconds, I had stripped off my large shirt to reveal my cute outfit to the moonlight shining through my window once again. Throwing the shirt under my covers and bringing them back up to the pillow, I stretched before bounding over to my window, pushing it open effortlessly and climbing out. Now sitting on the windowsill of my only bedroom window, I quietly jumped to a thick tree branch from a large tree that stood barely two feet from the house, and climbed down smoothly, grunting a bit when I hit the ground.

After I adjusted the straps of my blouse I took off down the street towards downtown Twilight Town.

* * *

After a solid 5 minutes of jogging in the suburbs of my neighborhood I got to downtown Twilight Town, walking now and catching my breath. Eventually, I had gotten to a corner of a busy intersection, a tall brick building stood there, on the wall above the door hung an abnormally large and flashy sign that read, _**7TH HEAVEN **_in large neon letters, I quickly hopped up the steps and through the door after being waved on by a bouncer who recognized me from my many visits here.

The music was blaring and the lights were flashing as the clearly underage 15 year old(me) weaved her way around the many patrons of Tifa's bar, plopping down on one of the high bar stools. I smirked, remembering what my aunt had told me earlier that morning as I propped my elbows up on the bar counter, holding my chin up high in my folded hands as a silent act of defiance.

"Namine! Hey! I thought you wouldn't show!" I snapped my head around towards the end of the bar, there, a tall long brown haired girl came strutting towards me from behind the bar, an empty drink glass in her hand.

"Hey, Tif! Sorry, it was Aunt Margret again." I rolled my eyes, Tifa nodded in understanding.

"Really? What happened this time?" She asked, concern in her voice as she filled the glass with a random mixture of things behind the counter and sliding it down the bar effortlessly, calling out some random customer's name and yelling "Order!". I explained everything that had happened earlier that day. "Ah, I see! So you had to stay late because she took a long time to go to sleep?" Tifa slid a small glass of Pepsi to me that she had filled while my story was being told.

"Yeah, I know I could have snuck out before she went to bed, but it's just a safety precaution, 'cause once she goes to bed, she _goes to bed_, and she doesn't wake up 'till morning!"

Tifa nodded again, her expression all of a sudden lighting up, "Oh! Guess what?"

My interest was evident as I straightened up, giving my full attention to my life long friend, "Yeah? What?"

"Oh~ you're going to just _love_ this!" She jumped up and down in excitement before walking back to her cash register, ducking beneath the counter and hopping back up to jog back, holding something behind her back.

"Come on, Tifa! Show me already!" I fidgeted in my seat, almost falling off at least once.

"Ta-Da!" Tifa then pulled a thin, colorful magazine out from behind her back, thrusting it into my arms.

"No... WAY?"

"Way!"

We squealed in unison, "The new issue of Opt Out? Aww~! Thanks Tif! I knew it was gonna come today! Thanks!" I practically leaped over the counter top to give her a tight hug.

"It's no problem, really! I mean, it's not like you could write the subscription to your house! Your aunt would _freak_!" We laughed.

I stared at the front cover, smiling from ear to ear in pure excitement. A blond woman with a cool, antenna-like hairstyle was yelling at the red head from the previous cover; he was sleeping on a sofa which appeared to be in a living room, a dirty magazine laying across his face.

"Well? You just gonna sit there or open the damned thing?"

Hearing this, I flung the magazine open, skimming the articles and photos of all the members, I held it out so Tifa could read, too. We both laughed along while reading the different stories and updates.

After a few minutes of this, Tifa spoke, "Oh! This reminds me-!" She grabbed a rag from behind her, wet it down in the sink, and started to wipe down the counter.

I quickly spoke out to this, "What?"

"...Guess who's in town? Hm? I got word that someone's favorite hero's are hanging around for awhile..."

My eyes went wide, "No. Way!"

"Yes way!" Tifa laughed at my incredulous behavior.

"Oh my god, Tifa! No lie?"

"No lie!" She put the rag back into the sink under glass shelves of many different drink mixtures, shakers, and lights. The wall behind it was a giant mirror, reflecting everything on the shelves to create exact replicas of the ones in front. When she turned back around, my face was inches from hers.

"Where? I _need_ to know!"

"Oh, come now, Naminé, if I tell you, you'll probably go and try to run off with them, or something stupid like that." She laughed.

Something in my head went off when I heard this, "Haha, y-yeah, that sure is a stupid idea... haha..." I turning away and laughing nervously. Tifa gave me a discriminating look, "Oh, c'mon, Tif! Would _I_ really do _that_?" Tifa's expression didn't change.

'_Ugh... I guess it's time for my last resort..._' I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath. When I opened them again, they were glazed over and as big as saucers. My hands were clasped in front of me and my lips were in mega-pout mode.

Tifa sighed, "Fine, I guess... But only because you're so damned cute!" The defeat in her tone was evident.

"Yes!" My fists were thrown in the air in triumph before leaning in excitedly, shaking with excitement.

Looking both ways, up and down the bar, all around them and over the crowd of people on the dance floor, she leaned in close to me, so close that our cheeks were touching. I could feel Tifa breathing gently on my ear as she whispered, "I got wind from Pence, you know, their personal photographer that submits all of those photos he takes of them to Opt Out?" I nodded impatiently, nudging her with my cheek, urging her to go on.

"Well, he told me they were camping out in that old abandoned mansion deep within the Woods." Tifa pulled back quickly, pulling out a fresh glass and filling it at lightning speed with random ingredients, then sending it down the counter, shouting out the persons name and "Refill Order!" before turning to look back at me.

I stared back, mouth agape, "No way! That close to civilization?" I whispered to her, not wanting to gain any attention to our conversation.

"Yeah, I know. Weird, right? You'd think they'd choose a more seclusive hideout..."

I looked down at my own empty glass in front of me, I had finished it awhile ago, but never asked for a refill.

"And knowing them, they're place is probably holed up deep in the far end of the Woods..." My head shot up, Tifa held onto her arms tightly, shivering a bit, "That place gives me the creeps..."

There was a pause, "H-hey, Tif?"

"Yeah, Nam?" She countered playing along with the nick-name-game.

I looked all around the bar, looking at anything but my life long friend, "How bad would it be if I just, oh, I don't know, tried to, maybe, pay them a visit?"

There was a pause, in which I dared to sneak a peek at my friend's face, Tifa was staring wildly at me, mouth agape, in what looked like utter astonishment.

"W-what? You can't do that! You promised!"

"Now, Tif-!"

"They could kill you!" She sounded outraged.

"They won't kill me if I'm close to Cloud!"

After a long pause stuttered, "W-What?" She went silent, taken aback by this.

"Tifa, he's is a legendary fighter, he's been featured in Opt Out at least six times! I'm sure they've heard of him! And once they know I'm a close friend to him, there's _no way_ they'll take my life!"

"Naminé, Cloud's been missing for over 7 years now."

"I know."

There was another pause in which I looked over my shoulder to see Sora, the DJ, jamming out to his own mix as Kairi, his girlfriend, danced next to him on stage, I smiled at how _Sora _he looked. I knew I was gonna miss him and Kairi if I left, '_I'll make sure to come back and see them._' I thought

"Uh, Naminé?" I turned and looked up in acknowledgment, eye brows raised in curiosity, "About this whole '_Going to see your favorite group of delinquents_' thing, shouldn't you be asking someone other than me? Maybe someone like your au-"

"No! Never! Haven't you been listening to me for the past years I've been sneaking out to come here?"

Tifa looked like she was about to answer when I interrupted her;

"She won't even let me leave the house unless there's some obviously good reason! _And_ I can never be alone with anyone she doesn't know or hasn't approved of!"

"That's just the thing! Maybe this situation is where this sort of thing applies! You have no idea what could happen to you there!" Tifa leaned over the counter in emphases.

At this, I bowed my head, knowing she was right, "I know." I paused, "But anything is better than where I am now." Tifa backed down at hearing this, "I'm willing to take my risks with this, Tifa."

"But, Namine!"

"Look, I know it all sounds kinda stupid, but I know what I'm doing! I've been learning how to fight! I can mildly defend myself! Sora and Kairi taught me some stuff!"

"But they're way stronger than you think-!"

"I know that! But, I _need_ to do this Tifa! I need to do this, for Cloud, _and_ for myself!"

Tifa paused, "F-fine, but, just be safe."

I sprang up and forced Tifa into a mega-glomp that could crush bones, I was so happy! I could finally meet the people I envy the most! _Finally! _"Don't worry, Tifa! I'll get back as soon as can to see you, OK?_"_

"I know." There was still that defeated tone in her voice, "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow. If everything goes as planned." I released her, sitting back down and taking a sip of my drink through a black light neon straw.

"What? So soon? Have you already planned this out?"

I shrugged, "No, not really. It's just like sneaking out to come here." I stated through my straw, it looked like Tifa was about to complain so I interrupted her before she could, "All I have to do is pack a day's worth of food and clothes for the walk, I'll be fine!"

"You're going to walk? You know how to drive, right? Use my car! You'll get there faster, you'll be protected from the wilderness, and you'll have a clean place to sleep!"

"But Tifa!" I whined, "You can't fit a car through that small hole in the wall of the city, and don't you think they'd hear a car coming? They probably have the whole woods under surveillance!"

"Yea, I guess your right... Wow, you are so much better at this than I am!"

"Years of experience, Tif!" I tapped the side of my head with my index finger intelligently.

Tifa sighed, "Well, I guess, you'll call me, right?"

I gave her a '_duh'_ look, "Well, yeah! Of course! I bought a small cell phone one night while I was in town so I could keep track of you guys, here, I'll give you my number-" I slipped the napkin out from under my cold glass and wrote m number down, "I memorized it!" I handed her the paper, scanning it, she slipped it securely into her pocket.

"Hey, what about your aunt?"

I paused and sighed, "What_ about_ my aunt?"

"You _know_ what I mean."

I sighed again, "She can live without me. She'll just find another puppet... When Cloud left she acted like he never existed, I'm sure it would be the same for me."

Now Tifa sighed, "Whatever you say, Nami." She started wiping down the counter again, more customers started showing up, and I knew I would have to leave soon.

Looking over my shoulder at the dance floor, I saw the large neon clock that hung on the wall behind the raised stage, where the DJ stand was now setup, "Oh my God, sorry Tif! I gotta go! I'm gonna need my sleep for tomorrow!" I spun all the way around, hopping off the bar stool and taking off towards the door.

"Okay! Oh, and Namine!"

I quick spun around, half way between the door and the bar, "Just... be careful out there, alright?"

"Don't worry, Tifa! I'll be fine! I'll call you before I go to bed tomorrow, okay?

She sighed, fiddling nervously fiddling with her shirt, "Okay..."

"Love you!"

"Yeah, love you too, Nam!"

My smile couldn't be brighter as I walked out the door and started walking down the busy street, and knowing that I left later than usual, and that I would need more sleep than normal for my journey tomorrow, I tried to take a short cut, sneaking out pretty much every night of your whole life to walk across town to a bar gave you a pretty good layout of the land. I took a left turn down a dark alley, I know, right? But I knew I could handle myself, I'm not afraid of the dark!

I stopped quick when I heard something move behind me, looking over my shoulder I saw nothing, but, being more on edge I continued down the long dark alley. When I heard something again I spun full around this time, apparently scaring whatever it was as a trash can toppled over and a scruffy looking tabby cat dashing out into the darkness.

"Oh," I laughed, "It was just a cat..." I turned around, only to suddenly come face to face with, well, more like face to chest, he was taller than me, a thin burly guy, he didn't seem much older than me, but I knew exactly who he was as he slammed me up against the nearest wall, "Get off me, Seifer!" I spat, he disgusted me, that pot head disgusted _everybody_.

"Aww! Come _on_, Nami! Let's have a little fun, yeah?" I could smell the pot on his breath, I just growled in response, obviously annoyed, though Seifer didn't get the vibe. Dumb ass.

"Get off me, Seifer!" He only laughed.

"Yeah that's right, just keep sayin' my name, Nami." I swear, if this boy didn't back away soon- He tried to close in on me again, and when I tried to back up all I found was wall, so, I did what Sora taught me, and kneed him; and I have to say, it worked pretty well.

Seifer staggered back, cupping himself, and collapsed on the alley pavement in pain. I couldn't help but laugh a bit as I ran off, making sure not to look back just in case he got back up. I also took a zig-zag route as an extra precaution; I wasn't sure if he would have the balls to follow me or not.

* * *

When I had gotten about a block away from my house, I slowed down to a walk, I knew he wasn't following me anymore. Every house had a tall fence that was impossible to climb over, and I'd be able to hear his drunken foot falls on the pavement from blocks away. Seifer is such an idiot, you'd think that over four years of this, he would change his attitude about me, but, after everything, he's still as much of a dumb ass as ever.

Walking up to my house, I took in a deep breath to steady myself before placing my foot carefully in a small niche, clamping my hands onto a firm branch, and hoisted myself up. Reaching the top branch, I launched myself into my bedroom window head-first and, landing on my hands, I did a frontwards somersault before standing up smoothly onto my feet. '_That was so cool!_' I raved. I felt like I could run a mile, but as soon as I stripped down to my bare body, hid my clothes under the bed, slipped on the giant shirt again, slid into bed, and dug my face snugly into my cool pillow, it's cool surface calming me, I thought, '_Just one more day, then I can leave, leave forever_.' And sleep took me.

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**How was it? Good, you think? Let me know! :)**


	3. Hard Luck

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS!**

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**Chapter 3:**

**_Hard Luck_**

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**_When I woke up, it felt like any regular day would._**

Somehow, Aunt always thought I would be just as stressed as she was by the end of our lessons(I was just pissed), and being a firm anti-stress-wrinkle believer, she now forces me to sleep in an attempt to rest up(to which I gave no protest).

Since I had stayed out later than usual, and was held up by Seifer(I shivered involuntarily at the mere thought of his name), I had slept in later than usual. Sitting up, I stretched, looked around the room, gave a quick listen for any squeaky floor boards from outside my room, reached under my pillow(knowing for sure the coast was clear) and pulled out the new issue of Opt Out I got last night from Tifa, bless her soul.

Paging through the magazine, slower this time, I read through the many articles and checked out all the updates from the Organization. When I saw a small advertisement for a struggle tournament downtown, thoughts of Cloud suddenly came rushing through my mind.

He was like the uncle I never had; he was my mom and dad's best friend through school and after. We would visit him a lot, my parents and I, and in turn they would visit us, him and his wife, along with their two twin sons. I always thought they were the cutest twins I had ever laid my eyes on. They were exactly the same(the only difference were their scars and birthmarks) it's almost as if they were joined at the hip, a scar – of which resembled a burn mark –rested forever engraved into their skin on their left and right hip. If they lined their hips up side by side, the marks would match up perfectly.

I remembered they always acted like that, too, they would always protect each other and look out for one another, whenever one got in trouble the other would defend the other, of course when it came to ruff-housing, they were both up for it, no matter what. They would always be doing something stupid and getting themselves into trouble and or hurting themselves, my dad always said they were just like Cloud and him when they were kids.

I haven't seen them in so long, I can't even remember their names, let alone how they looked. I wish I could, though, it would be nice to see them again. Has Cloud seen them since he mysteriously disappeared all those years ago? And what about his wife, Aerith?

Ah, Aerith...

She was the sweetest women I knew(besides my own mother), she would always take care of everyone and treat them, family or not, as if they were her own child, and that included me... and Sora. That's right, Sora is Cloud and Aerith's nephew, that's how I met him, at one of the Strife's family reunions. My family was so close to theirs, we were treated and considered part of the family anyway. The Strife's always took care of us, even after my mother and father died of sickness, they took me in for a few days, but then, everything started to go down hill.

Cloud was looking more depressed than ever, and he had mysteriously disappeared later, only a few days after my parents' death, not even Aerith knew anything about it, and soon after that, the government came and took me away, saying that I had to stay with my blood related family, they had sent me over sees to my Aunt's home in Twilight Town.

I used to live in Destiny Islands, it seemed like a far off memory by now; the beautiful sand, the crystal clear waters, the fresh sea salt air, and the soft distant call of the seagulls. The longer I stayed with my aunt, the more I began to forget about it, how the ocean smelled, how I could see all the different shells at the sea floor from standing knee deep in the water.

I remember how much the twins and I were crying the day they were to take me away, the boys and I were like siblings, and everyone knows you can't tear siblings apart, you just_can't_. Then they took me away, I haven't spoken to any of them since.

Feeling overwhelmingly dejected, I flipped the page, not wanting the old haunting thoughts of my family-by-choice drifting back in.

Though, despite my efforts, more and more ads for the yearly struggle match kept popping up in the most inconvenient places, and, knowing that if I kept reading this, it would honestly not help with what I was trying to do;

_Forget._

Tossing the magazine back into my drawer, I jumped up from my bed to resume my last day of hell, '_Can't wait_.'

* * *

Surprisingly the day went by pretty fast; my aunt treated the way she treated me everyday(with no respect). That night, I double checked everything, made sure it was all right. I would leave my room the way it was; no note, bed slightly messy, no clothes on floor, it would look like it always did when I went to sleep.

I waited a few extra minutes after hearing the familiar creak of the floor board upstairs before jumping out of bed. I yanked the over sized sleep-shirt over my head, revealing soft, buttoned denim shorts and a tee.

Quickly hopping to my closet, I flung open the doors, digging deep inside it for my gray converse. Finding them, I slipped them on easily, my fingers shaking with adrenalin as I attempted to tie the laces. Once they were on, I crawled back into my closet, and from the deepest depths I retrieved a drawstring bag, and threw it onto my back securely.

I peeked out over the window sill, '_Coast is clear._..' Climbing through the window, I took one last look at my room before I hopped out onto the branch, quickly slid down the trunk, and took off towards the street. Looking to the sky as I ran, I could see the sun was going to set soon, if I didn't hurry, it would be dark before I got there, and I don't think I would like to be in the woods... in the dark... _alone_.

Thank _God_ my aunt always sent me to bed early, otherwise I probably wouldn't be doing this in the first place, you know, with the whole, _being alone__ in the dark woods_ thing? Thankfully, it was still light outside as I ran through Twilight Town and down to Tram Common.

Just as I turned a corner I ran into something, well, more like _someone_, "Where you goin', beautiful?"

_Seifer_.

"That's none of your business, Seifer!" I spat at him, he just smirked and laughed at me.

"What's so funny?" He was starting to piss me off.

"There you go! Sayin' my name again!" I growled, '_Pissing me off!_', "If you don't want me so much, then why do you keep sayin' my name so much?"

"Fine, _Jackass_, is that better?"

He growls defensively before charging at me, I dodged him easily.

He quickly spun around, grabbing my arm forcefully and pushed me up against the wall. I cried out in pain, let's just say being slammed up against brick walls isn't good for your back.

"Shh, Nami! Someone might hear us!" He mocked, slapping a hand over my mouth to silence out my cries. Taking in my last resort, I bit his hand, which got an annoyingly loud amount of feedback, "Ouch!" He grunted, and taking my chance, I kneed him, he backed off clutching both parts. As he buckled backwards, I took my second chance and ran for my life towards the city wall, I could see the giant hole that led to the woods as I desperately ran towards it.

"Stop her!" He called out, I could hear his voice crack and many footfalls growing louder as they slowly started to catch up with me. I hadn't even noticed that his posse was with him until now, which isn't much of a surprise, being under Seifer's complete control, and all.

I was running faster than I had in awhile, I has just reached the tunnel when I heard them shouting behind me, they weren't as close as I thought they were.

"She's heading for the forest, y'know?" That was Raijin.

"Catch her!" And that was Fujin, so where's Seifer? Was he still following me? Well, I knew for sure that I wasn't going to turn back to find out.

Finally reaching the end of the tunnel, I sprang into action, dodging and weaving around trees, I could hear them stomping around the woods, taking different paths than mine but keeping up with me all the same.

It took me a little while before realizing that all of my dodging and weaving had gotten me lost, I felt hopeless, I had no idea which way _out_ was, '_Nice, Naminè..._'

I could hear everyone's footsteps dying down, they were further away than before, I stopped running and turned towards my pursuers, realizing they were far off behind me now, I sighed, backing up, and bumping into something. I gasped as the _something_ clutched me from behind.

"Gotcha!"

'_Seifer!_'

I tried to kick him from behind, after receiving a grunt or two from him I heard him say, "This 'otta stop you!" I saw a glint of silver as he pulled out his knife.

'_Damn it!_' I struggled more before feeling a gruesomely painful sting in my right side. Slamming me up against the nearest tree I nearly screamed in pain, but all that came out was a barely audible and shaky groan. I hadn't exactly recovered from the first time he did this back in town.

"_There we are_." He whispered into my ear. I growled at him, it was the only thing I could do thanks to all the pain, and his body pressing mine up against the tree didn't help much either. I could feel the blood trickling down my side, along with it's potent smell that filled the air around us.

I could feel his cold hands on my skin, I shivered as he tried to pull my shirt over my head, but he only got it to the base of my ribs when I thrust my body weight from my hips into him. With him holding me to the tree by my wrists above my head, and pinning my legs to the tree with his own, I couldn't do anything with my upper body.

I saw him look into my eyes with that stupid cocky smile of his that always made me want to punch somebody, preferably him, "Oh! So you wanna start with the bottom half, huh?_Kinky_, I like that."

'_What? No! That's not what I was trying to do!_' I growled at him again as he forced my other hand into his right as he used his left to try and pull my undo the buttons on my shorts.

All of a sudden a new idea formed in my head, "Hey, Seifer?" I moaned to him as seductively as I could. At the mention of his name he looked up at me, he was trying to undo the buttons to my shorts after many failed attempts to pull them down with them fully buttoned.

"Yeah, baby?" I inwardly cringed at my new name, he was enjoying this, it was so hard not to just kick him right away, but I had to play this out if I wanted it to work, unfortunately.

Leaning into him, close to his ear, I whispered, "_Don't you wanna kiss me first?_"

"Hm, sure babe." He was nuzzling my neck, his hands roaming my body, he moved closer to her face, one of the hardest things in my life was to keep a straight face and look interested at the same time while Seifer was coming in for a kiss that he thought_ I_ wanted. I inwardly snorted.

He loosened his grip as he got closer, and just as I thought he was close enough, I kneed him in the crotch again. He dropped me down as he backed up in pain again, I laughed out loud at the hilarity and irony of it, running as fast as possible, completely ignoring the pain that my side was giving me.

I ran and ran, ducking behind a nearby bush after what I figured was a decent distance between us, I could literally feel myself collapse under the branches in pain and exhaustion. After a few minutes of panting heavily, I heard loud footsteps from somewhere outside my bush, I wasn't going to look and risk my new hiding spot, I did't think I could run anymore.

"Did you find her?" Ugh, Seifer.

"No." That was Fujin with her usual one-to-two-word sentences. I heard Seifer let out an angry grunt.

"Don't let her get away!"

"Okay, boss!" Raijin. I could hear the sound of their footfalls die into the distance as they ran towards the tunnel into the city.

When I couldn't hear them anymore, and was sure they were gone, I crawled out from my bush. Clinging onto a tree for support, I helped myself up, I was trembling with nervousness and pain, a stabbing pain surged through my side, I gasped for air as I coughed up some blood. Staggering along the tree line of the forest I made my way towards the opposite end of the forest that Seifer and his posse were on.

Looking up to the sky, I could see the sun starting to set, casting a beautiful neon shine onto the leaves of the forest, staring into the gorgeous sky, I reached out for the next branch, but came up with nothing, I almost fell over, thinking the branch was there I leaned all my weight to my one side, causing me to fall and desperately throw my arms into the air and grab onto anything that would catch me. Unfortunately, there was nothing.

Pushing myself up from the ground I steadied myself on my own two feet, standing up slowly, I staggered forward, amazed that I was even alive right now. As I slowly stepped forward I reached a large clearing, lined with trees, a large gate at the end, behind that was a large, old mansion.

My lips quickly picked up into a thankful and relieved smile, '_Yes, finally!_' Trembling more than ever, I excitedly picked myself up when I suddenly felt a strong pang of pain to my side, I instinctively wrapped my left arm around my stomach, applying pressure to my wound with my cold, shaking hand. I could feel my torn and blood drenched shirt sticking to my skin with the tips of my fingers.

"_Left. Right. Left. Right._" I whispered to myself, concentrating on each word, "_Come on, Naminé, you've made it this far, don't give up now!_" I whispered again, I probably sounded crazy whispering to myself like this, but my own words seemed more encouraging when I could hear them outside my head. I was almost there, I had made it at least half way over fine, staggering so much that at times I thought I would fall over.

I reached out to the gate, placing a single hand on it for support, "_Y-Yes, I... did it, I- ... I finally... made... it..._**.**"

I then fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

"I _told _you, Zexy, I am the _master _at agility trials!" A spiky redhead boasted, cautiously stepping into the clearing in front of the mansion.

His dark haired companion simply went off in mock laughter, "Yeah! Just like your the master at ice magic! ... And don't call me Zexy! my name is _Zexion!_"

"Hey! Ice magic is difficult to learn! ... And no, it's my special nickname for you, _Zexy!_" He mussed up Zexion's hair playfully. Zexion nodded, smiling, seemingly amused at his friend's distress, "-_and_ ice is like my polar opposite! You can't just teach that, man!

"Haha, _yeah__ right_ Axel." Zexion laughed on with him until he saw something on the dirt ground in front of the mansion's gate. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring straight ahead, his eyes widened as a mix of shock and confusion set on his features.

The red haired man pursued on, stopping only a few feet in front of the other. He looked back at him confused, "Dude? What's up?"

Zexion continued stared straight ahead, unmoving. Axel followed his gaze toward the front gate; there, they both stared in awe at a petite blond girl laying limp on the ground just before the tall iron gate. Axel looked back to Zexion, urgency in his gaze.

Both rushed to her in swift strides, looking down onto the blond, Axel picked her up carefully, "Awe, Man! She's bleeding like _hell!_" Axel held the girl out from his body, wincing slightly at the amount of blood staining her clothes and the grass where she was once laying.

"What? How did she get here? How does she know where we are?"

"How should I know?" He felt her jugular vein, "She's alive, just unconscious." There was a pause, "What do we do with her?"

"Well, we can't just leave her out here... come on." Zexion made his way towards the gate, pushing with little force as the gate creaked loudly.

"Zexion, we can't just bring home some random person in need of medical care-"

Zexion quick whipped around to stare menacingly back at Axel, "And we can't just leave her out here to die, can we?"

"Well, no, but-"

"But nothing! Now come on! If we don't get her inside soon, and bandage her wound, she _will_ die!"

Sighing dejectedly, Axel continued to go on through the gate with Zexion, "Fine, let's hurry." Zexion nodded silently and pushed open the gate, quickly bringing the girl inside.

* * *

**3rd Person**

Axel sighed, running a hand through his wild, red hair. He was leaning against the wall in the mansion's medical center; a small room with three cots lining the longest wall, all with small bedside tables. Along the other side stood tall shelves stacked to their tops with medicine, herbs, potions, and magic of all kinds.

"What are we going to do with her, man?" He stared dejectedly at the still unconscious girl laying on the second of the three hospital cots. Zexion sighed, he was sitting in a three-wheel office chair next to her bed, observing her closely.

"I don't know."

"More importantly-" Axel moved towards the door, gesturing in a frenzy of arm waving and eye rolling, "-how are we gonna tell the '_superior_'?" He put air quotes around the name.

"... I don't know." The room was silent as Zexion paused, "Maybe..." Axel looked up in hopefulness at his friend, "We don't need to tell anyone..."

Axel groaned aloud, "I don't think we can do that, Zexy..." Zexion visibly winced at the name, replying angrily, "Why do you say that, _Axel?_"

All of a sudden the door burst open, revealing a very unwanted guest, "HEY! Axel! Did you see where I put my-" A disheveled Demyx froze on the spot staring towards one of the three hospital cots occupying the room.

"Now, Demyx, let us explain-!"

"Why the _face_ is there a random girl in our hospital bed?"

They both sighed, Demyx leaped over to the girl, examining her closely. "We found her outside the gates, she was unconscious and bleeding heavily out of a deep gash in her side..."

Zexion followed Demyx, standing over the girl on the opposite side of the cot, Demyx leaned in some more, "She's cute, what's her name?" He poked the girl's cheek, examining her sleeping body.

Zexion sighed angrily, slapping Demyx's hand away, "We don't know, Demyx, we found her outside, I told you that." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to Axel, who nodded in acknowledgment.

"Did you guys tell Xemnas yet?" Demyx asked, "He'll sure be pissed."

"Hey! You never know! He might not mind!"

Axel snorted, "Yeah, right!" Demyx only nodded, prodding at the girl's face again.

"Stop it!" Zexion yelled, slapping his hand away again, after taking a deep breath, he began again, "Judging from the amount of blood lost and the size of the wound, she'll need lots of rest, she'll be in a coma like state for another day or two. It's a good thing we got there in time, she was attacked just a few hours before we got there." There was another silence, "And I know what we're going to do about her," Everyone looked up in interest, "I've decided that I will tell Xemnas and everyone else as soon as possible, but I will only address everyone at once, I'll call everyone in here for an emergency meeting."

"When?" Axel asked.

"Probably tomorrow morning, so everyone is here."

Axel nodded, agreeing completely, Demyx just looked back and forth between them, totally confused, "But-but what if he doesn't let her stay? What will we do with her then? There are no medical centers in the area, and it's not like _we _can just waltz right in there and ask them! Everyone involved with government is after us!"

"I understand that, Demyx, but I know Xemnas, and as cruel as he may seem, he wouldn't leave an innocent victim with this great of an injury out to die." Zexion assured towards the sleeping girl.

Demyx sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"So, I guess it's decided then?" Axel spoke out, Zexion and Demyx turned to look at him, he had a serious yet unsure look on his face, "We'll all be here for a meeting tomorrow morning?" They all nodded, "Good, I'll tell everyone in the morning, it's getting really late..." Axel trailed off into a long yawn, stretching his arms out for emphasis, while walking through the door and down the hall to his room, Demyx following close behind.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to hit the sack too, Zexy!" Called Demyx through the door, turning down the hall in the opposite direction as Axel. Giving one last fleeting glance at the blond girl, Zexion turned the lights out and left with the rest, closing and locking the door behind him.

* * *

The last member of the Organization stepped inside the room as Demyx closed the door behind him, everyone was spread out all along the room, once they heard the door shut, they all directed their attention towards the front of the room where Zexion stood, arms crossed, in front of a drawn curtain meant for that particular cot.

"What's the meaning of this, Zexion?" Asked a taller man with long silver hair, impatience was easily seen in his expression.

"I wanted to call an emergency meeting," Zexion called out, "Axel and I–discovered something, yesterday night after coming back from agility practice." Everyone's bored/serious expressions turned to ones of concern and curiosity, "And we would like to bring this to your attention." Grabbing the end of the curtain, Zexion slowly drew it back to the wall to reveal the still sleeping girl.

Everyone's reactions were different; they varied from shocked, to dumbfounded, from bored to completely engrossed. Only Axel and Demyx remained cool and unaffected by this. "Like I said, Axel and I found this girl coming back from our agility trials. She was laying unconscious outside of the main gate; a large gash in her side and major case of blood loss. If we hadn't taken her in when we did, she would be dead by now." Zexion paused to spy a glance at everyone's reaction, Xemnas's in particular.

After a long silence Saïx spoke, "And what, exactly, do you plan to do with this girl, Zexion?"

"Well, sir, I was planning on keeping her here and treating her back to health. It would be wrong for me to just leave her out to die, sir."

'_Way to milk it, Zexion.._.' Axel thought.

"I am asking your permission to keep her here, sir."

Saïx didn't reply, he only looked to Xemnas for his final answer. Xemnas appeared to be lost in deep thought, like he usually was, when he spoke, "Zexion. Do you plan to take full care of her here?" Zexion quickly nodded at this, he obviously wanted to get to the answer, and quickly, "Then I will allow her to stay here for as long as it takes for her to fully recover."

Zexion couldn't hide his triumphant smile, "Thank you, sir. I will take good care of her." Xemnas nodded, gliding out of the room, followed by the other Organization members, all shuffling out behind him. The only one who stayed behind was a boy with dirty blond hair, spiked up to his right side, he stood, staring blankly at the hospitalized girl, his eyes wide with shock. "Oi? Roxas? You OK man?" Axel waved his hand in front of his best friend's face. Quickly snapping out of it, Roxas grunted, "Huh? Wha–?" He looked around, clearly dazed.

Snorting, Axel led his friend out of the room, "Come on, man! Don't tell me have already have somethin' goin' on for that chick, do ya'?"

A slight pink dusted his cheeks, though Roxas quickly discarded it an snorted, "Pfft, yeah right! I don't even know her name!" Axel only smirked knowingly, nudging Roxas in his side, making him wince slightly, "Sure you don't." Axel winked.

"Axel..."

"Yes?"

The pyromaniac doubled over as Roxas landed a hard punch in his side, "Shut up."

* * *

**Namine's POV**

It's been a few days, I can tell. I haven't seen the light of day in awhile, but I know I'm not dead yet, right? Right. I can hear people's voices sometimes, I don't recognize any of them, and I catch a few words every now and then, but I can't piece them together enough to make sense of any of them.

Wait, if I'm not dead yet, then where am I? There's no hospital anywhere nearby, and the police would've had me in my aunt's care again, but I know for a fact that none of these voices I've been hearing are hers. So, if I'm not in a hospital, with the police, or my crazy aunt, then where am I?

I hope I'll make it through this alive...

* * *

**3rd Person**

Picking up a small pair of scissors from a nearby bedside table, Zexion cut the last strand of fabric and taped the end to the rest of the wound up cloth in a secure fashion, "Done!" He had been bandaging and re-bandaging the mystery girl everyday for almost half a week, she was recovering slowly, and she still hadn't woken up.

Hearing footsteps outside the infirmary, he turned his head to find the culprit, smiled, and called out, "Roxas! Hey! I need your help for a minute!"

Said boy stopped abruptly in the hall and turned into the room with an air of curiosity, "Yeah?"

"Can you watch her for a minute? I have to go get a new roll of bandages from my storage locker, we haven't had to bandage someone up this much since Xigbar dared Demyx to jump off the top of the Clock Tower!"

"Uh... Yeah, sure I gue-"

"Thanks! I'll be right back!" The medic ran out the door and down the hall, the sound of his rubber soles hitting against the old, hardwood.

Roxas sighed and went to sit down when Zexion poked his head back in the door, "And don't try anything funny with her while I'm gone!" He then hurtled himself down the hall again, knowing that Roxas would probably try hitting him for that.

His slight blush fading, Roxas slid into the chair next to the girl. She lay flat on her back, elevated slightly by extra pillows behind her. Her hair was a golden blond_, _somewhat like his. He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face with his hands before sitting back and staring at her, "How did you get here..." he eyed her bandages, "And like _this?_"

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair. The blond girl shifted in her sleep. "_Namine..._"

* * *

**Namine's POV**

I could hear someone new this time-

I wanted to wake up then, so I could know who he was, so I could see what he looked like. He sounded familiar, like I heard the voice a long time ago, reminding me of my childhood.

I'm getting a bit worried actually, I still don't know where I am, and I've been asleep for so long, I've been hearing so many different people, I could feel someone wrapping something around my torso, right where Seifer stabbed me- '_Idiot_...' -I knew I wouldn't be able to get out of that without at least _some_ kind of injury.

Damn, is life unfair.

The wound still hurts, but not as much as it did before, you know, back when I almost bled to death? I should be waking up soon, I can feel it, the pain in my side is slowly dying away, and I can hear and feel things more clearly that I could before.

I just know it, tomorrow's the day!

* * *

**So there you go, next chapter's coming soon!**

**Review! Review! Review! :D**


	4. Familiarity

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS**

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

_**Familiarity**_

* * *

**3rd Person**

A slight tapping noise could be heard from an Organization member's shoes while he walked down the halls to breakfast. He walked in and sat down in an open seat, leaning back in aggravation, "I can't believe how easily he accepted her being here! Something must be wrong..." Everyone in the room nodded.

"Yeah, he's probably plotting something to do with her right now..."

"But what?" Demyx spoke up, stabbing his bacon with a fork and holding it up in front of him for emphasis.

The Organization members all looked around at each other, pondering the possible outcomes of this situation.

"Well, she should be waking up soon, so I guess we'll know soon enough?" Zexion assured, receiving nods of understanding in return as everyone ate their food.

* * *

**Meanwhile...**

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do!" A high, cracking voice shouted into the police officer's face.

"I'm _sorry_, Ma'am," the man countered, obviously annoyed, "We've done everything we can for now, and we will continue our search,_ tomorrow." _Him and his partner turned around, heading for their squad car parked outside the frantic woman's house._  
_

"You can't just quit for the night! What if she's hurt!"

"Ma'am! We've been searching for days! She's probably staying in the next town over!"

"Oh_ please_!" She scoffed, placing her fists on her hips, "Is that the best you could come up with? I thought you were men! Not _cowards_!"

"Ma'am! Please!" He sputtered, "We're doing the best we can! Insulting us won't help us find your niece!"

Seemingly defeated, the aging women turned back to her home, looking back at the doorway to give them one last-minute glare before they slammed the doors of their squad car loudly, making sure to pull out from the curb as fast as they could.

* * *

**3rd Person**

A small sigh emanated from across the room, it was deathly silent, and no one seemed to move, except–

"Did you see that!" Demyx pointed wildly at the girl laying still in her bed, "Her hand just twitched! She's waking up today! I can just _tell_!"

Zexion, annoyed as ever, retorted, "Demyx, her hands have been doing that_ all day_ today... and all afternoon yesterday!"

"All the more reason!" He wagged his finger at the girl, staring her down, as if laser beams would shoot out of his eyes, waking her up immediately.

"Demyx, you know that staring at her like that won't help..."

"Yeah, but–"

"–and if she wakes up and sees you doing that, what do you think she'll think of you then? Not a very good first impression if you ask me..."

Demyx immediately turned to look at his friend with a forlorn expression, a pout taking the place of his previous tense-pointed-glare. Sighing, he hung his head in defeat. After a short silence there was a knock on the door, they both looked up in surprise, "Roxas!" Demyx leaped onto his friend, causing Roxas to double over in surprise and shock.

"H-hey, Demyx!"

"Did you come here to see the girl, too?"

"Huh? Oh- Well- I, uh-"

"OOOHHHHH~! You _so _did!"

"Come now, Demyx, don't tease Roxas over his interest in the sleeping girl!" Zexion warned mockingly, though Roxas could clearly see the smirk on Zexion's face as he wheeled around in his office chair to face his desk. After a great deal of shifting the papers on his desk he called out, "WHAT THE–? THE HELL!"

"...?" Demyx and Roxas exchanged looks before staring back at the normally quiet magic user, "Umm..."

"You _look_ at this!" Zexion was suddenly across the room, holding a random paper full of numbers, dollar signs, and words that seemed to retain to medicine in front of Roxas's face, "This is how much we've spent on all the extra IVs and medical equipment! No one's been so _stupid_ to need this much treatment in so long!" He fell back into his chair, a mix of worry, anxiety, and stress on his face as he rubbed his temples.

After a long silence of temple rubbing and confused glances from Demyx to Roxas, Zexion sighed, letting out a hoarse whisper, "What are we going to do with her?"

* * *

**Namine's POV**

_I want to wake up_.

More than anything, I want to wake up, _now_.

I've been asleep too long, I feel so useless, so _lifeless_.

I haven't been hearing people's voices as much as I used too... I wonder what's going on around me... I hope nothing bad- I want to wake up with my body fully intact! But I doubt that will be a problem, the voices I hear sound nice, and caring, not mean in any way at all.

And what will happen when I wake up? Will they accept me? Whoever they are? -Sigh- I can only hope so...

* * *

**3rd person**

"See! She's waking up today!" Roxas and Demyx stared down at the girl, Roxas looking completely lost.

"Why do you say that?" He asked, taking a seat across the cot from him.

"Just watch-" they stared down at the girl for a good minute, "-there! Did you see it? Her hand twitched!"

"Sorry, but I think you're over-exaggerating, Dem."

* * *

**Namine's POV**

I could hear some of those familiar voices talking around me again.

How many of them would actually care if I woke up or not?

Maybe I should give one last push, if these people haven't gotten rid of me yet, then they must care- at least a little...

* * *

**3rd Person**

The girl's body trembled, and Roxas grabbed her hand, holding it tightly in between his, the girl tightened her own grip in response.

Roxas looked over to Zexion, who was watching them intently. He seemed shocked at the amount of feedback Roxas was getting. Trailing his eyes back down, Roxas looked at the girl's other hand, which would clench and unclench handfuls of her sheets as her other hand tightened and loosened in his.

'_She's in pain_...' He quickly checked her other side- no blood, '_She hasn't reopened her wound_...' His eyes trailed to her face, which was distorted a bit in displeasure, she looked like she might cry. Roxas tightened his grip, hoping she'd calm down now that she knew someone was beside her.

* * *

**Namine's POV**

It was strange, when I felt the boy take my hand, I saw something, like a memory, from a long time ago-

_It was the middle of the day, though everything seemed dimmer; the lights, the hope in people's eyes_, _and the life in theirs._

_They had been sick for a while now, and everyone, including me, knew this would be their last moments. Everyone we help close was crowded around their bed; My mother and father's best friends, their twin boys, who I shared my existing life with, my nasty Aunt, who I despised with all my being, and people who's names an faces I can't remember._

_I stood on mom's side of the bed, clenching her hand tightly, she smiled her gentle smile at me, that was all she had the energy to do. She kissed my hand, and held it close to her heart; I could feel it's beats slowly drifting away. I looked over at Father; he was in the same condition as Mother; dying, in their sick beds._

_Fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and I choked on a sob or two, but I couldn't break down, I had cried too many tears before to do that now. Father told me not to worry, and that he loved me, but that only made me want to cry more. Mother agreed and said the same thing, she had looked up to everyone standing around her and Father, and thanked them for being here, being here for them._

_I looked around the room; everyone there had helped me through this, through my parents dying, through the realization that I would never be able to see them again, and most importantly, through the tears._

_My mother squeezed my hand one last time, before I felt her heart stop as she dropped my hand with hers to the ground. Time froze at that moment, I remember, no one moved, no one even dare breathe. Two people, two innocent people, who had loved and cared for everyone they had come across, were now dead. They had slipped through my fingers, like sand, and falling away, into the many other identical grains, never to be found again._

Then, it was dark again.

* * *

**3rd Person**

The girl's eyelids trembled before shooting open, revealing two bright blue orbs. Her whole body trembled, her hand gripping Roxas's tighter as she stared up, wide eyed, at the seemingly endless white ceiling, her mouth hung slightly open. The room was silent, you could hear a fraction of a pin drop.

"W–Where am I...?" Her voice sounded a bit uneasy, no one couldn't blame her; she had been asleep for almost two weeks.

"Y–You're–"

"–In a safe place now." Zexion interrupted, scooting closer to her bed with a small notepad, scribbling furiously with his pen.

"UGH! _FINALLY!_" Demyx yelled, throwing his arms in the air in an exasperated stretch, "I thought she would never wake up!"

"Yeah, you were out like a light for a long time, there, kid!" Axel chimed with Demyx, "We thought you were gonna pass in that bed!" Roxas saw her flinch at the idea.

"But you didn't! So that's good!" Roxas reassured her, she sighed pleasantly, feeling fine.

* * *

**Namine's POV**

I pulled myself up in my squeaky cot to rest against the headboard with the help of the blond boy next to me, grunting a bit, "W–What happened to me?"

"You were stabbed in the side." A man with dark hair swept over his right ey,e who sat to my right said, rather bluntly, "And suffered from sever bleeding and nearly died."

'_Oh, how pleasant._..'

"Am–Am I going to be all right?"

"Of course; you were asleep for about almost two weeks, and your wound is very well taken care of." He assured, he was writing furiously on a small pad since I had woken up, "You will just need to rest for a bit before you'll be _completely_ healed."

I contemplated all of this; I almost died, but I'll survive, as long as I cooperate with strangers(that seem mildly threatening) and become bed ridden. Sounds nice.

"How do you feel? Groggy? Does your right side hurt at all? Can you not feel any of your limbs?"

"...Uhh, fine, no, only a bit, and I can wiggle my toes if that's what you mean...?" He nodded silently at this, then continued to write.

"May I ask you what your name is, Miss?" I paused and looked around me; to my left sat a tall looking boy with spiky, dirty blond hair that mostly stuck up to his right side. He had tanned skin, toned muscles, and deep azure eyes.

"Namine." I said it more to him than the man who asked me. He looked shocked for a minute, then relieved.

"Roxas." He stated, nodding slightly and holding out his hand. I smiled back and shook it, but when I said nothing else, his smile dropped along with our hands.

Looking around, I saw everyone else; some guy with deep red spiked back hair, green eyes, and awesome teardrop tattoos under both eyes. Next to him stood a guy with a mullet and sparkling turquoise eyes that just stared at me in dazzling wonderment, so much that it creeped me out.

The man with the mullet leaped across the room, crashing into Roxas and giving him a bear hug, "WE DID IT! SHE'S AWAKE! I TOLD YOU TODAY WAS THE DAY! I KNEW IT- ISN'T THIS FANTASTIC?"

"Ugh–! OI! Demyx! Get _off!_"

The one called Demyx jumped away from Roxas and quickly retreated towards the door, "I'm gonna alert the '_Superior_'!" He uttered the last name sarcastically, "Be right back _Namine!_" And then he was gone.

"Who's the 'Superior'?" I heard myself ask, "And why does he need to know I'm awake?"

"You're in _his_ house, why wouldn't he want to know?" The red head complied, '_His house..?_'

Next thing you know the door was thrown back open, revealing Demyx, followed by a tall man with long silver hair, yellow eyes, and wearing a stern look. He looked down at me with interest.

"So, the sleeping girl is finally awake, huh?" He leaned in, examining me closely. He reached out a thick hand towards my head.

I shriveled away from him at first, closing my eyes, scared of what he might do. Though, my eyes shot back open when I felt a soft pat on my head, "I think I know what we can do with you..." This didn't exactly lessen the 'fear' factor.

He stood back up straight and called for someone named Saix. A man about his height wandered up from a small group of people to stand next to him, I just now noticed all of the extra people in the room.

"Yes, sir?"

"How clean would you say the mansion is right now?"

There was a pause, "Moderately clean, sir."

"For Kingdom Heart's sake, Saix, be honest!" Yelled someone from the crowd, his hair was black(streaked with gray) and tied into a ponytail. He wore an exasperated an annoyed look on his face.

Saix just coughed and mumbled a short, "_Below adequate, sir_."

"Yes, that's what I thought." The tall man with the long silver hair said, "And how much progress do you think we've made on all of the cleaning necessary?"

Before sparing a glance back at the intimidating man, Saix replied with, "Not much, sir."

"Thank you. Zexion! How much of our munny and medical equipment have we used to take care of this...?" He looked down at me with a wondering gaze, to which I replied.

"Namine" I told him, he only nodded and continued.

"How much of our munny and medical equipment has this_ Namine _depleted?"

"A considerable amount, sir."

"Thank you," He turned to the group of people waiting patiently behind him, "May I ask if any of you see what I see here? An opportunity for something we need _greatly!_" He turned his body half way toward me, pointing his index finger at me, "This girl has used up a lot of our supplies, and we _are_ greatly in need of some help around here–" He paused for a moment, turned to me with a devious smile on his face before continuing, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce you to our new house maid!"

* * *

**And the craziness begins~ haha :) I hope you guys liked it! There are more chapters to come!**


	5. Introductions And Realization

**I'm thinking about keeping everything in Namine's POV, what do you guys think?**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS!**

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

_**Introductions and Realization**_

* * *

"What?" That was officially the strangest thing I had ever heard, "_House maid?_"

"Yes, ma'am." Stated the man, "You have used up most of our supplies, and I doubt you have enough money to pay us back for everything. Not to mention that, now that you know where our group is hiding, there's _no way_ we can let you go. We can't risk being found out like that!" He sounded as though such a thing were too ridiculous to even suggest.

"Hold on, Chief!" Someone in the crowd behind him called out, "How can she be put to work with an injury?"

"Simple! We'll bandage her up and give her simple tasks to start with, then, as she heals, we can set her to harder works!"

"Yeah, but–"

"-I think _we all_ know that we don't have enough money to recuperate our supplies!" At this, everyone nodded dejectedly, "And that the mansion could _really_ use a cleaning?" Everyone slowly nodded again, "I assure you; I won't let any harm come to her if she cooperates!" Everyone seemed convinced enough, though others still seemed skeptical.

"I guess that sounds all right... I mean, as long as I don't get hurt I think–"

"Oh, Dear, it wouldn't have mattered if you were against the idea or not. We need this, and you need this, a simple trade, alright?"

"Well, I gue–"

"Wonderful! I believe some introductions are in order, no? I am Xemnas, leader." People seemed to roll their eyes and smirk at his added comment.

"Nice to meet you...?"

"And this is my right hand man, Saix." The man he gestured to held up a hand in recognition. Stoic, great. The boy to the right of me, the one with the pad and pen, addressed me next.

"I am Zexion." He held out a hand, which I shook gratefully.

"Pleasure." I replied as we shook hands.

"No, it's all mine." He countered politely. I smiled, he seemed nice enough. Next to him stood a tall man with red hair spiked back, he was tall and slightly lanky.

"The name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" I nodded and he nodded appreciatively in return, like he knew that would be my answer. The one who stood next to him almost jumped on me in his obvious excitement to introduce himself.

"I'm Demyx! Nice to meet you!" I laughed, grabbing his finger and shaking it, not wanting to crush my hand completely from his overly animated hand shake. A beautiful blond women that stood next to Axel pushed Demyx aside, obviously annoyed, and spoke next.

"Larxene." She jabbed her thumb at herself, emphasizing her point. She looked tough, I made a mental note not to get on her bad side. I nodded back to her, making sure not to look intimidated(or straight into her eyes). A tall pink haired man bowed graciously and held out his hand. I took it graciously, and he pulled my hand closer to him.

"_Marluxia_," He kissed the top gently, "Ashonte, madame mozel." He chimed. I smiled in return before a slightly shorter man with shaved, bleach blond hair and a goatee smacked him on the back of the head.

"Come now, Mar, don't go _scaring_ the small child!" Marluxia withdrew his hand and rubbed the back of his head dejectedly. "The name's_ Luxord, _got it miss?" His British accent was evident, I nodded in return.

"Oi! _Xaldin!_" One _very_ tall man with dreadlocks tied back into a ponytail chided confidently, a winning smile on his face.

"Xigbar, nice to meet 'cha, young miss Namine!" Said another man who stood right next to Xaldin. He had an eye patch over his right eye and a long scar on the other side of his face, the gray streaks in his hair giving me this old-but-wise-kinda-guy vibe.

The next person kind of scared me; he had long, pale blond hair, and one of his eyes looked bigger than the other. He was looking me up and down with interest, as if he wanted to do something, something he knew would get him in trouble... I shivered at the very thought.

"... _Vexen_."

"N–Nice to meet you...?" I wasn't too sure if it was so nice to meet him just yet, but, he's with all of these other(seemingly) nice people, so there's got to be good in him, right?

I looked behind Vexen to see another tall, burly man with short orange hair looking humbly towards the floor, "And what's your name?" I asked sweetly, he seemed shy, he was the first person I had to ask for their name. Looking up at me, I saw his modest green eyes.

"...Lexaeus." He half mumbled, I smiled at him and he smiled back, his shy behavior dissolving.

I looked to my left to see the blond haired boy from earlier, his familiar cobalt-blue eyes shining. They reminded me of someone back home, my childhood home.

'_Sora_...'

I had completely forgotten to ask him what he thought of my getaway plan! He's one of my best friends, along with Kairi, how could I have just left them behind like that? Overcome with a sense of guilt, I asked, "Do you have a phone I can use?" Completely ignoring the blond haired boy sitting beside me. I knew I had to call them, it was only right after running away from them without notice.

Everyone in the room exchanged looks before Xemnas spoke, "I am very sorry, Miss Namine, but we can't let you do that–"

"Why not! I need to call–!" I stopped, was it safe to tell them who I was planning on calling? "...a friend."

"We have no idea who your '_friend_' could be- We need to keep our current headquarters a well kept secret! And letting you make unauthorized calls from the mansion won't help! Someone could trace it back to us."

"Right, and at this point in time, it would be better for you to get some rest." Zexion cooed, it sounded like he was trying to calm me down, trying to convince me that this was the best thing to do at the moment. But I knew that the best thing to do would be to call Tifa and let her know everything was alright. That _I was _alright.

"Rest? But I just got up!" I protested furiously, '_I've been resting for about a week and a half, you dumb shi–!_'

"Yes, yes, I know! But your body needs to adjust to the changes of being awake after such a long hibernation period."

"I'm not an animal." I stated bluntly.

"I am quite aware of that. But still, you must rest. And with that, we need to slowly bring you back to your feet. Your muscles haven't been used in so long, they will need to be..._revived_, you could say."

I groaned angrily, this is taking too long! I need to get better, get out of here, and find the Organization! "Why do these things have to take so long? Can't I just leave now? I have places to be! Things to do! You guys are annoying me!" The one called Luxord chuckled in his British accent.

"Welcome to Organization XIII, Miss." Everyone seemed to smirk playfully at this as I went silent, sorting things out in my head.

'_Wait... Organization... Organization XIII? ... Hey, isn't that what I ran away to–_' I froze, my eyes widening in realization.

"Y–You're- _Organization XIII?_" My brain just then started piecing things together. Someone to my right chuckled, I looked over and saw Axel.

"Yeah. Didn't you recognize us?" He flipped one of his spikes stereotypically, "WE'RE PRACTICALLY SUPERSTARS." Larxene jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, laughing giddily at his pain.

Now that he mentioned it, I did. Axel; the one who was always making mischief in the photos. And Zexion, the one always trying to calm everyone else down. Being 'the peace maker' type, I would see him along with Lexaeus and Vexen in pictures of the library, searching through books for research or just to pass the time.

I suddenly felt stupid, more stupid than Sora probably felt when he failed a pop quiz for not writing his name at the top. How could I not have recognized anybody? Yeah, I felt stupid. My thoughts of how stupid I was were interrupted by a loud clattering noise, which I instantly recognized as a cell phone vibrating on a hard surface. The vibrating ceased when Axel picked up a small cell on Zexion's desk, flipping open the phone.

"Axel." He announced to the other line, turning away from me slightly, "... Okay, nice. Thanks, man. I owe you one... K, bye." Axel flipped his phone shut and turned to Xemnas, "We gotta go, Pence is waiting for us with our order."

"Right. Zexion, put Namine to sleep. We'll be back soon."

"Yes, sir."

"_Not an animal~_." I chimed as Zexion laid me down on the cot, fluffing my pillow, "Get some rest, Namine."

"Yeah, sure..." I whispered dejectedly, everyone in the room started to file out except for Roxas, who lagged behind. He turned to Zexion, whispering.

"_Do you really think this is the best solution?_"

"What do you want me to say?" He replied in a regular tone of voice, "That we should go against Xemnas?"

"No, but what if something happens? Something bad?"

Zexion sighed, "Roxas, I'm pretty sure that keeping her here won't jeopardize what we have."

"I didn't mean bad for _us_." His eyes flicked over to the blond in the cot. Zexion sighed.

"Things could get better around here, Roxas, but you'll just have to wait." Roxas nodded dejectedly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." He turned to leave, hands in his pockets. He waved over his head as he walked to the door, "See ya', Zexion! Get well, Namine!"

"Yeah, thanks." I muttered as Zexion put away some remaining supplies.

"Sleep well, Namine. I want to see some improvement in your system by tomorrow morning!" He smiled cheerfully as he walked out of the room, waving as he shut the door. I heard a small _CHANK_; he had locked the door behind him.

'_Well now, don't I feel trusted...?_'

I had to admit, the fact that I was now alone in an almost dark room, bandaged and just revived from (near)death kind of scared me a bit. But knowing that I was in good hands sort of pushed that fear away... sort of. The room was dark, the only light was from the setting sun that sent layers of pink-purple light through the windows.

I had no idea how late it had gotten. It, surprisingly, turned out to be pretty peaceful in that room. You know, when you're not struggling for your life or bleeding to death. _You've just gotta notice the little things~!_

I realized how tired I really was, '_Damn that Zexion for knowing so much about how my body works.._.' Next thing you know, I'm asleep. But this time, It will only be for a good eight hours.

* * *

**3rd Person**

The next few days were focused on keeping Namine healthy and well nourished. It'd been three whole days since she first woke up, and Zexion wanted her to try walking, which was something she'd been wanting to do since she first woke up, but what if she hurt herself? What if she slipped and broke a bone? What if she fell and hit her head? And fell into _another_ coma! One she wouldn't wake up from?

'_Oh God._..'

Zexion, Roxas, Demyx, and Axel were in the room when the time had finally come. Namine sat up fine, no pain at all.

'_I guess Zexion was right about the rest I _apparently_ needed..._'

Zexion and Roxas held out their arms for Namine to lean on as Zexion pulled the covers off her legs. She slowly slid out of bed with the aid of Roxas, and just like Zexion had said, Namine could barely feel her legs, so she relied on her arm strength to keep her from falling.

"You okay, Namine?" Roxas asked as she fell into him again, she looked up to him and nodded shakily, by the expression on her face, she wasn't very convincing.

"Y–Yeah, I'm fine." Even Namine could tell how pathetic she sounded, the guys were about as fooled as she was by the way they looked at each other.

"You know, Namine, if you're not ready for this, you don't have to–"

"No! I–," She took a deep breath, not wanting to sound too desperate, "...I can do this." She whispered confidently, more to herself than to them. It was silent, the two exchanging glances before they both agreed with her.

Pulling Namine back up to their level, she was ready to start again. At full height, the top of her head reached about Roxas's eyes, same with Zexion, though Roxas was a bit taller than him. The trio started again, ready and willing. This time Namine tried her best, moving her right leg forward.

Namine felt strange, almost surreal; like she was _watching_ herself _fail epically_ at walking. But she was fine with it, due to the fact she could feel her foot hitting the ground, and it wasn't just some dead weight hanging on her body.

Trying not to look too excited, she brought her other foot up to follow, letting it hit the floor with a small _THUD_, just as the other one had. Ultimately failing in hiding her excitement, she looked up at both of them with wide eyes, receiving chuckles from both at how enthusiastic she was about doing something they did without thinking.

Namine took another step, then another, and another, until she was slowly but surely making her way across the room.

"Come here! _Come here Girl!_ Come on!" Axel chimed mockingly from the opposite end of the room, crouching down and patting his knees for effect.

"I'm not an animal!" Namine argued as she continued to walk towards him. After a few more steps of wobbling like an innocent toddler, she fell into an awaiting Axel's arms, him picking her up and swinging her around excitedly.

"You did it, Girl! Ya' did it!" He set Namine down and ruffled her hair, and to Namine's surprise, she didn't fall back down again. She swatted his hand away and the others chuckled lightly with Axel's amusement.

"Now, can you walk back? _Without_ us helping you?" She turned around to face Roxas, Axel and Zexion standing back about half way from where they first started. Looking down at her feet uncertainly, she began to walk again.

At first, she looked kind of demented, walking like she was just born yesterday. Every time Namine wobbled from side to side, Roxas and Zexion would be by her side, ready to catch her, though she would usually catch herself before they did.

Before Namine knew it, she was on the other side of the room, collapsing face first onto her bed. She could hear cheering in the room around her.

"Come on, Nami! Let's go tell _everybody_!" Demyx chimed happily, almost half way down the hall once Namine got to the door.

By now, Namine was walking fine; she wouldn't fall, but every now and then she would get five, quick seconds of pins and needles in her feet, then feel better almost instantly.

Namine, Zexion, and Roxas contently followed a joyfully rampaging Demyx down a long hallway. It all seemed strangely new to her; when she woke up, she didn't seem to know she was staying in a _mansion_, and now that she knew, it seemed fitting.

Once the group reached the other end of the hall, Demyx was standing there, arms crossed, tapping his foot, wearing an indignant pout as he waited for them.

"_Finally!_" He continued on, fast-walking down and around the next corner. Namine giggling lightly as she tried to hustle to keep up with him, Roxas and Zexion in the same situation. Once they turned the corner, Namine was met with a large staircase, leading down into a large living area, where most of the Organization sat.

Lexaeus, Marluxia, and Xaldin were siting at a large, warn, poker table being dealt in by Luxord, whose cards seemed to fly through the air as he expertly shuffled and dealt them. On the couch sat Larxene, legs crossed, switching through channels aimlessly on an old, fuzzy TV.

She was the first to notice the group; she seemed uninterested when she noticed Demyx, curious and surprised when Namine entered, then back to the uninterested expression when Roxas came into view. Though once Axel entered, her lips slid into a mischievous smile, becoming _instantly _interested. Standing up, she strutted over, slid her arms around Axel's neck, and kissed him with such vigor, she almost knocked them both down to the floor, not that either of them would probably notice or care.

Roxas just rolled his eyes before wandering into the room, falling onto the couch and picking up where Larxene left off. While Axel and Larxene continued to make out near the entrance, Demyx took hold of Namine's wrist and dragged her across the room towards the large poker table where most everyone was sitting, "Hey, guys! _Namine's up~!_"

They all turned their attention towards the girl, everyone's expressions(except Luxord's) were twisted in defeat, they must have lost against him.

"Well, would you look at that! She _is_ finally up!" Luxord chimed in his cheery British accent, "I have been wanting to play cards with you since you first woke up, my dear! You _do_ know something about cards, doncha'?" He was already reshuffling his deck.

Waving her hands protectively in front of her, Namine made sure to stop him before he dealt her in, "No, no, no! I haven't played cards in... I mean I used to play a little but..."

"But what, Miss? Don't tell me you've forgotten! You never forget how to play cards! It's in the blood!"

"Well, I don't–"

"Why! Look who is finally up!" In through two swinging doors came Xemnas, followed by his trusty, ever present assistant, Saix.

"Hello, sir." Namine greeted formally, wanting to be formal with her new boss.

"Oh, please, Namine! Call me Xemnas!"

Or not.

"Okay... Xemnas."

"That's more like it!"

"Oi! Xemnas! What's for dinner? I'm _starving_!" Demyx called, flopping himself on the couch next to Roxas.

"Ask Marluxia! He's the cook!" Xemnas sounded as though he always passed on this conversation, and it was something that happened most every night.

"_Maarrlyyy~!"_ Demyx whined.

"Yes, Dem?"

"_What's for dinnnerrrr~!_"

Marluxia sighed loudly, "Hmm... Is there anything specific you guys want? Namine, why don't you come into the kitchen with me and help decide, K?"

"Alright." The request seemed simple enough.

Marluxia slid his chair out and walked through a pair double doors into what looked like the kitchen, the doors swinging aimlessly back and forth behind him before Namine pushed through to join him. The kitchen was huge, but looked run down; dirty dishes filled the sink to the point where the ones that didn't fit were stacked on the counter. Random, old appliances laying around the barely-available counter space.

"So, is there something you had in mind for dinner tonight?" Marluxia's calm voice snapped Namine out of her OCD haze. He seemed used to the mess and treated it as the norm.

"Huh?"

"Dinner? Do you have any preferences?"

"Why are you asking me? Shouldn't you be asking the other members?"

"Well, I could do that, but I think you deserve something you like to eat after being out like a candle for about a week, don't you?"

"Yeah, I guess... What do ya' guys got?" Namine asked, agreeing with Marluxia completely.

"Well..." Marluxia quick tapped his chin before swiftly opening the refrigerator door, "How do you feel about spaghetti?"

"Despise it." Namine spat quickly, trying to hide the obvious venom in her voice.

"_All right then~_" He hummed, rummaging through the old, overstuffed fridge again, "How about pizza?"

Namine's ears perked up at this; she hadn't had pizza in a long time, Aunt never allowed her to have it. She would say it was bad for her, even though Namine just saw it as spaghetti cooked onto the garlic bread- the same thing.

"Sure!"

"Alright then! Pizza it is!" In a whirl, Marluxia pulled out an enormous stack of freezer pizzas from the deepest depths of the fridge, sliding them smoothly onto the cluttered kitchen island, "Well," Marluxia shut the fridge, "There you go, those are all of the pizzas. _Have fun~_." He waved to Namine as he made his way out the door and into the living room where everyone else sat.

"Whoa! Whoa! _Whoa!_" Namine rushed up to him, pulling him back into the kitchen by his shoulder just as he laid a hand on the swaying kitchen door, "Where do you think you're going?" He looked down at Namine, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't '_what do you mean?_' me!" Namine mocked, "Are you leaving me to cook all these _on my own_?" Marluxia paused to pat his chin mockingly at this.

"_Well_... Yes. Listen Nami, I _really_ don't want to leave you alone to cook this by yourself, _really_. But I haven't had a break from cooking in a long time. I _need _this! Please?" Namine looked down at her shoes nervously as this settled in; Marluxia has had to make dinner for all these people for awhile now, so cooking something as simple as pizza shouldn't be that hard, so why not?

"Sure, take a break, Mar."

"Aww~! Thanks, Nami! I owe you one! Maybe I can braid your hair sometime...?" Namine giggled.

"Yeah, sure, _maybe_." He laughed, pushing through the double doors into the living room as Namine started heating up the oven.

* * *

After taking her hundredth breathy sigh, Namine heaved the fifth piping hot pizza out of the oven and onto a cooling tray. She had burnt bread crumbs wiped onto her apron which she had resorted to wearing about half way through the cooking process.

"Finally!" She heaved, throwing off the apron and practically collapsing into a bar stool set up next to the kitchen counter, "How does Marluxia do this every night?"

"Hey, Nami. Is the pizza ready yet?"

'_Speak of the devil._..'

"Yeah, I'm just letting it cool."

"Nice. Should I get everyone ready?"

"Um... Yeah, sure." Namine started to clean up.

"Cool." Marluxia pushed back through the swinging kitchen doors, "Hey! Everyone! FOOD'S READY!" The next thing you know, there's a stampede of people barging into the kitchen, all of them grabbing plates along with multiple slices of pizza. It was all over in a second, and the kitchen was left completely void of pizza except for a slice or two.

Namine grabbed a plate with a trembling hand, slapped the pizza onto it, and followed the stampede into the dining room. Everyone was already sitting around a long dining table, practically _inhaling_ their pizza. Looking around to find no empty seats, Namine stood in her place.

"So, uh... Does everyone like their pizza?" Namine received grunts and motioned thumbs up of approval.

"Gweat jwob, Nam!" Demyx called across the table, he had just stuffed a whole slice in his mouth, "It's dewicious!" Namine blushed bashfully at his comment while she heard others from around the table praising her, only making her blush more. "It's a gwood thing–" He swallowed, "–It's a good thing we have a slave like you!" He joked.

"I'm not a slave!... Just an obedient helper!" Everyone chuckled at her response.

"Well, _obedient helper_, take a seat and eat your dinner before it gets cold!" Roxas laughed, gesturing to the seat he had just pulled up next to him. Namine took it gratefully, and picking up her pizza, she took the biggest bite possible, reveling in the feeling of delicious, solid food on her tongue.

Due to the fact that everyone liked the pizza, dinner had ended fast. The now full members decided to help Namine clean up since it was her first day on the job(more like enslavement). Laxaeus helped her with the dishes; she would wash them while he dried them and put them away, everyone else bringing Namine more dishes to clean, or cleaning up other things like crumbs from around the table and throwing away dirty napkins(they came by the dozens there).

As Namine spotted Zexion pass by with another large wad of used napkins in his hands, she remembered something she had to ask him.

"Hey, Zexion?"

"Yes, Namine?" He responded.

"I was just wondering, where will I be sleeping from now on, since I'm awake and everything?" She could tell he was thinking this over thoroughly.

"Well, since you are still on medicine and bed rest, I would like you to continue sleeping in the hospital wing, just until you fully recover. Only _then_ we will discuss your living arrangements."

Namine nodded gratefully, though something inside her sank. She knew that deep down she would prefer a real bed to that makeshift cot any day, but she also knew that Zexion was only looking out for her, and that she should listen to him if she wanted to get better anytime soon.

After everyone was done cleaning up, they invited Namine to sit in the living room with them to watch TV, and of course, she happily obliged. For the next few hours, Namine and the Organization watched their small, fuzzy TV, played games, and just had fun. In fact, Namine couldn't remember the last time she had had as much fun.

They laughed along with the TV as they heard corresponding groans of defeat and/or cheers from the poker table. All of this made Namine realize just how much she_ didn't _miss her aunt, and how perfectly fine she was with that.

'_I think I'm going to like working here..._'

* * *

**So Namine's finally up and moving! :D YAY!**

**REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! :D**


	6. Laundry Day

**Okay, so, wow. What has it been? A year? And a half? I just want to apologize, I know how hard it is to be waiting for THIS LONG, and if you are still here, I COMMEND YOU! :D I messed up awhile ago when trying to 'revamp' this story, by cutting all of the chapters in half and posting them again. While doing this, I realized it was dumb and tried to switch everything back to the way it was before with longer chapters, I lost the last one I wrote(this one).**

**As I was rewriting the chapter, I realized the exact direction I wanted this story to go, and changed the entire chapter! So if you're an avid reader of this story and remember Namine's first mission, it's completely different, and important to the progression of plot.**

**The first REAL update will be soon, since I don't have much of writers block anymore, but just keep in mind the usual reminders, like school work and sports getting in the way of avid writing time.**

**Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS!**

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

_**Laundry Day**_

* * *

It was a new day in the Organization, Zexion had come to wake me up like usual, a job he performed every morning since I woke up to make sure I hadn't fallen back into a coma in my sleep. After getting dressed, I followed him to a room off of the living room by the base of the stairs.

"This is that laundry room." Walking in, all of my senses were attacked at once, the room smelled of sweat and wet dog.

"Do you guys have any pets?"

"No, why?" Zexion asked, pushing the door back with all of his strength against the mounds of dirty laundry.

"It just-_ smells_." I wrinkled my nose.

"Yeah, we don't really know what that is. Everyone just ignores it." I nearly fainted, "Your job for today is to get all of this cleaned and sorted." I looked around Zexion to see mounds of clothing overflowing from more than a dozen hampers, all with roman numerals drawn messily on the side in black sharpie.

"Do I have to _deliver_ these, too?"

"Actually, that would be great!" I sighed, scratching the back of my neck as I gazed at the small washer and dryer, nearly hidden by all of the clothes.

"See you at dinner Namine!" Zexion waved over his head, gone before I could take another breath of the revolting laundry.

"Might as well get started..." I muttered, bending down to gather an armful of dirty clothes for the first wash.

* * *

_*bzzt* *bzzt* "For the weather-" *bzzt* *bzzt* "-a few inches of rain in the north- *bzzt* *bzzt*_

"Piece of shit!" Tifa yelled, slamming her fist into the side of the small TV hanging above the bar, the image instantly becoming clear.

"Whoa, Tif! You okay?" Kairi asked, setting the tray full of empty glasses she was carrying onto the bar before sliding onto a stool. Tifa sighed, tossing her long black tresses over her shoulder and continuing to wash a particularly crummy glass.

"I guess I've just been on edge lately," the television crackled and popped behind her, "I haven't seen Namine for a few weeks. I know her aunt is strict, but this just seems suspicious..."

"You know, I've tried calling her house, and no one ever picks up."

"You guys talking about Namine?" The two others nodded, Sora taking his seat next to Kairi, resting his elbows over the bar.

"I'm starting to get worried, she usually manages to sneak out within a week of her last visit..." Tifa drummed her fingertips on the counter, lost in thought as she bit her lip.

_*bzzt* *bzzt* "In other news-" *bzzt* "-resident Namine Strife- *bzzt* __"-missing, as of last week- *bzzt* *bzzt*_

"Wait a minute...!" Tifa yelled, slamming her fist into the side of the machine again, the picture returning to normal.

_"-the girl's aunt awoke one morning a week ago to find her niece missing out of her bed. A kidnapping is suspected, since no note was found- *bzzt*_

"Wait a damn minute!" Tifa spun to the two employees sitting at the bar, ignoring the once again fuzzy television, "I know where Namine is! And you're _not_ going to like it."

* * *

After several hours of washing, drying, folding and sorting, I was ready to deliver the Organization's laundry. Me being so small, I could only carry one at a time, maybe two if I kicked one along in front of me. The members lived on the second floor of the mansion, which consisted of a long hallway that wrapped around to another set of stairs that landed in the mudroom by the back door. Doors lined the walls on either side, each of them with a number on the face- one to thirteen.

Since most of the higher up members were busy and didn't answer when I knocked, I just left their baskets outside of their doors before returning to the laundry room to get the rest. Getting to door _V_, I knocked, the door opening to reveal a gigantic, brooding man with scrunched, orange hair.

"H-Hi Lexaeus." I stuttered, even though he was nice when I smiled to him in the infirmary, he was still intimidating, "I brought your laundry!" I smiled nervously, making his lips curl up into a half smile. He nodded, taking the basket from me.

"Thanks. Need help?" He muttered, gesturing to the extra basket I had been kicking along, labeled _VI_. I nodded, smiling happily as I handed him the basket and showed him to the laundry room to get more baskets.

With Lexaeus' help, delivering laundry was a snap. He fit a basket under each arm, cutting my work load in half! After a couple trips from the laundry room, Lexaeus had to leave for some Organization business, leaving me with the last two baskets to deliver. Holding _XII_ and kicking _XIII_, I took my last trek down the long hallway.

I knocked on _XII_'s door, it flying open immediately, slamming shut behind me as I was yanked inside.

"Larxene!-" I yelped, massaging my arm where she had grabbed me, going silent when I noticed her attire. Larxene stood before me, in all her half-naked glory, a towel wrapped around her head, wearing a bra and suggestively matching pair of undies.

"Finally! I've been waiting _forever_ for these!" She took the basket from my hands and tossed it onto her bed. Her room was small, but big enough to hold her bed, an old dresser, a desk cluttered with random, unimportant items, and a window facing the sunlit forest. "So you're stuck with laundry duty, huh? That sucks. I remember when _I_ had to do that shit." Her eyebrows rose in remembrance, "Who's basket was that out there?"

"Roxas'. Lexaeus said it would be easier to deliver by number." Larxene eye brows rose even higher.

"You got Lexaeus to TALK?" She whistled, "Damn, you just might fit in here." Larxene dropped her hands from her hips, turning to her bed covered in clean laundry, "Now help me fold."

* * *

"OW- Sora! Watch where you're going!" Kairi hissed, almost falling forward from her hiding place behind a tree.

"Sorry babe! It's only noon and it's dark as night around here!"

"For good reason, too." Tifa whispered, creeping behind them as they made their way through the dark forest surrounding Twilight Town, "If it were always light around here, it would be easy for people to discover their hideout."

"I can't believe Namine would run off to the Organization! Didn't you tell her not to, Tifa?"

"..."

"TIFA!"

"I did, but the look I saw in her eyes... Maybe this is a good thing! Maybe it's time she figured everything out."

"I don't know," Sora muttered, almost tripping over another root, Kairi spinning back to shoot him a cautious glare for making so much noise, "What if she's not ready- and when she finds out we kept this from her-!"

"Then we don't tell her the whole story!" Kairi whisper-yelled, holding back branches for Sora and Tifa to pass through, "Look, I love our Nami as much as anyone, but some things are worth hearing from the right person! And if she hasn't found out about her god family yet, then maybe we should wait for the right moment."

"Or for someone else to tell her." Sora shrugged to the glare Kairi sent him over her shoulder as they continued through the forest.

* * *

Half way through folding Larxene's laundry, I picked up an intricate piece of lingerie, "Larxene!" I gasped, holding it far out in front of me with the tips of my fingers.

"What? I have to entertain Axel with something."

"Ew." I laughed, moving to fold a tee shirt when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye; a small, black mark just above Larxene's right breast, protruding from her bra.

Larxene paused, "You said you were going to Roxas' room next, right?"

"Yeah? Why?" I snapped my eyes back up to meet her contemplating ones, looking me over to the point where I blushed from her intense gaze. In the next second, Larxene had grabbed my arm again, shoving me into her minuscule closet with her. Pulling a tiny string hanging from the ceiling, the closet lit up with the dim light from a single, uncovered light bulb, "What was that for?" She grabbed my shoulders and sat me down on the floor with her, legs crossed.

"What do you think of Roxas?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, what do you think of him? Do you think he's cute? A fugly pig? What?"

"Well- uh, then I guess... I don't know?"

"Right." Larxene said in a determined tone, standing up and rummaging through her rack of clothes, "He's probably getting back from training right about now..." She muttered, more to herself than me. Quickly skimming through her hangers of jackets and extra lingerie, she ignored my pleading questions. "... it might work... Namine!" She boomed, making me jump. Her voice thundering in the cramped closet.

"What?" I yelled back, annoyed. Larxene continued rummaging through her closet, throwing something at me.

"It's one of my old Halloween costumes. Wear it." Holding the costume up to the light, I saw it was a lolita maid's costume, including the shoes, stockings, and an exceedingly short hemline. I blushed scarlet.

"I can't wear this!"

"I'm not letting you out until you put it on!" Larxene yelled from outside the door, bolting it. After verbally fighting and futilely pushing against the door, I looked back down at the itty-bitty costume.

'_Oh God.'_

* * *

Larxene slowly opened the door, practically squealing at my 'adorable' appearance. I walked out with my head bowed low in shame.

'_I can't believe I'm doing this..._'

"Perfect fit! And don't worry, you look hot!" She pushed me to the door, opening it and shoving the previously forgotten laundry basket into my arms, "Now go deliver Roxas' laundry."

"WHAT? I can't do that! Not in _this_!" I gestured down to my attire, or lack-there-of.

"Of course you can! Roxas looks great without a shirt on, so when you see him, you'll be able to tell your feelings for him." She ushers me out of her room, keeping my clothes so I couldn't change. "And honestly, what did you expect to come out of this?" With one last furtive glance, and a few eye brow raises, Larxene slammed her door shut, leaving me to turn around to face door _XIII_, Roxas' room.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked, Roxas' muffled calls of '_be right there!'_ sounding through the door. In the next second, a shirtless, wet haired Roxas stood in his open door. Our eyes widened in unison, both of us surprised by the other; me in my suggestive costume, and Roxas in his half-naked glory.

"Uh...?" Roxas gestured to my outfit.

"Larxene." I stated simply, he nodded with a chuckling smile.

"Well tell her she did a good job." He smiled, leaning against his door frame.

I smiled and chuckled with him, "Thanks- Here's your laundry."

"Hey, thanks! Sucks that you have to do this." He took the basket under his arm.

"Yeah, I've never been so scared of someone's underwear." We laughed harder, Roxas pausing and shifting the basket in his arms.

"If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could help me fold my stuff?"

"Sure." I followed Roxas into his room. It was the same size as Larxene's; one window, a ratty dresser, a desk cluttered with miscellaneous items, along with a few posters on the walls and a cluttered floor.

"Sorry about the mess..." He scratched the back of his neck bashfully.

"Don't worry about it." I smiled, examining the used popsicle sticks strewn across the desk. We spent the next half hour folding and sorting his laundry, Roxas holding up a tee shirt that read _The Killers_ in faded print.

"No way! I've been looking for this!" He rejoiced, throwing it over his shirtless form.

"You like the killers too?" I asked, incredulously. He turned to me, a delighted smile on his face.

"HELL YEAH. They're awesome."

"Favorite song?" I quizzed.

"When You Were Young. You?"

"Same," I smirked, "What about Maroon 5?"

"What about them?"

"Do you like them?"

"I don't know, I guess. But the Killers definitely have that special place in my heart." Roxas swooned, holding his hands over his heart as he looked longingly into the distance.

"I'm so jealous."

"How couldn't you be?" He flexed, winking as he mocked macho-ness.

"Okay, Dream Boat." I laughed, patting him on the shoulder, turning back to fold more laundry.

There was a loud _BANG!_ from what sounded like the foyer that made me jump. Roxas didn't move a muscle, looking towards his door in suspicious confusion. He turned back to me with a cautious expression, muttering "_Wait here._" Before swiftly making his way out of his door and down the hall. There was another loud _BANG!_ and I heard Zexion yell, "KAIRI! STOP!"

'_Kairi?_' I heard another _CRASH!_ and Zexion screaming mercy, '_How does Zexion know her...?_'

Curiosity taking over, I sprinted out of Roxas' room, careening around the door frame and skidding to a halt at the top of the stairs, crouching down behind the railings to get a view of the doorway without anyone seeing me.

"WHERE IS SHE?" Kairi screamed, being held back by Axel. Seeing Kairi again awakened the ache in my chest, reminding me how much I missed her.

"You didn't have to break down their door..." I looked behind Kairi to see Sora, who looked dully concerned at his girlfriend's ravenous actions, gazing upon the door that now sat ajar, hanging to it's frame by one measly hinge.

"We don't know who you're talking about!" Demyx pleaded, pulling back to hide behind Roxas when Kairi snarled at him.

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT!" She tried to wriggle herself out of Axel's grasp, practically snarling.

"Who!" Roxas questioned, trying to pull Demyx off of his back.

"NAMINE!" The room went silent, everyone exchanging glances.

"I'm right here, Kairi." I had stepped out from my hiding place behind the stair railing, all eyes on me as I descended the stairs. Axel's hold on Kairi went limp, the auburn haired girl throwing herself at me, enveloping me in a hug.

"You're okay! You're alive and you're okay!"

"Of course I am, Kai!" I laughed, stroking her hair as she continued to hug her frustrations out on me. Pulling away, I could see her glossy eyes shining as she stuttered.

"Y-You ran away, no one knew where you were! We were worried, and- and-" She stopped, noticing my attire, her thankful and joyous demeanor shifting back in a second to ravenous and bloodthirsty. She shoved me behind her into Sora's arms. "WHO DID THIS TO HER? WHO DID THIS TO MY NAMI!" She glared and pointed an accusing finger at Roxas, "Was it_ you_ Roxie?"

Roxas suddenly looked panicked, "N-No! It wasn't- I swear! It was Larxene!" Kairi lunged for his throat, "NO! Kairi I _swear_! AHH!" She wrestled Roxas to the ground, pulling his hair as him and some of the other members tried to pry her off, Larxene cackling in the background.

"KAIRI!" I yelled, getting the auburn-haired girl's attention immediately. She stepped off of Roxas, leaving the spiky blond ruffled on the floor, the other members helping him up, "It wasn't Roxas!" Kairi stayed silent, looking as though she just realized beating up Roxas was a bad thing, "How did you find me? And how do you _know_ these people?" Kairi stayed silent, this time, her face full of guilt, "Answer me, Kairi! I need answers!" Kairi stayed silent again, but this time she looked in deep thought, along with Sora, Tifa, Roxas, and the rest of the Organization.

"Namine..." Tifa spoke, I turned to her, hoping she could see the desire for answers in my eyes. "I've known the Organization ever since I started up the bar, I send out food and supplies to them, weekly."

"And you never told me this, because...?"

Tifa scoffed, "Because I didn't want you getting hurt! I know you want answers, but running off to some criminal group won't help you find them! No offence you guys." The group muttered out replies of 'none taken' and 'you pegged it'. I looked to the floor, I knew I was being childish and didn't think through my actions enough, but choosing between sitting at home in Aunt's neglecting care or running off to get the much needed answers of my past made the choice easy.

"I'm sorry, Tif. I didn't mean to worry you." Tifa rubbed her forehead with her hands.

"It's fine. You're safe now. Now c'mon, let's get you home." Tifa reached out for me, but I instinctively pulled back.

"I don't want to go with you, Tifa." She looked shocked for a moment, then relaxed.

"Look what you've done, she's fallen for you guys!" They chuckled while I smiled bashfully.

"So, can I...?"

Tifa chuckled, "Yes, you can stay." Everyone cheered, I laughed giddily as Demyx hoisted me up over his shoulder and spun me around, "Just stay safe! If I hear _one word_ about you being in _any_ danger-!"

"Okay, Tifa! Okay!" I laughed, hugging her tightly, squealing as many 'thank you's as I could in one breath.

* * *

It had been a few days since Kairi broke down the Organization's front door, and everyone was getting ready for a mission that Roxas said was taking place in the underground; exterminating heartless. They dropped me off at Tifa's bar, promising they'd come back to get me once they were finished. I just scoffed, Roxas giving me an apologetic shrug before running off with his teammates.

I begrudgingly took a seat on a bar stool, slumping over the counter and groaning loudly, on purpose, to annoy the bar tender, who just rolled her eyes.

"Get over it! I'd rather you stay here, too, where it's safer."

"You really need to get over your mother complex. I can be fine on my own, you know?" She shot me a knowing look before walking off to serve someone further down the bar. I sighed again, spinning around to get a look at the rest of the club, leaning back against bar, my forearms resting back on the counter's edge.

On slow, weeknights like this, the scene could have come out of that Piano Man song; a few regulars drinking their troubles away while Sora played the piano in the back corner, a pleased smile on his face as his fingers gently tapped out the tunes. Kairi was sitting at a table, her finger tracing the edge of a dirty glass from the previous customers with her chin her her opposite palm, watching Sora dreamily. I rolled my eyes with a small smile at Kairi's classic behavior, shaking my head and spinning back around to face the bar and downing the rest of my coke.

'_I can't believe I'm stuck here..._' I rested my temple on the cool counter, sighing again while a drunk man fell from his a chair, ignored by Kairi who was still admiring Sora.

"I didn't run away from home to sit in a bar all night." I declared to myself, sitting up straighter in my seat as an idea hatched in my mind. Hopping off of the bar stool, I walked across the club, yelling to Tifa that I was heading to the bathroom. After speed walking down the narrow hallway that led to the restroom, I yanked open the black-painted, wooden door, slid inside, and bolted it. The room had black and white checkered floor tiles, and a mirror for a ceiling. A small sink stood in the corner next to the only toilet in the whole place, which had taken more drunken pukes than one could count.

Jumping up onto the toilet seat, I propped open the half-window, vaulting myself off of the toilet and landing hard on the pavement outback of 7th Heaven. Regaining my strength, I brushing myself off, running down the street with wobbly knees towards the closest gate to the underground routes of Twilight Town.

After sneaking around corners and narrowly avoiding Seifer and his idiot gang, I had arrived at my desired gate. All of the gates were built tall and wide for the use of large trucks that didn't fit the streets. Taking one last look around, I used all of my strength to lift up the metal gate and creep into the passageway, determined to find the Organization and see them in action. Twilight Town's underground consisted of dank corridors used primarily for the sewage system, town's electricity, and Seifer's occasional drug deals and gang fights.

I heard someone else's footsteps and ran to the source, slamming myslef flat against the nearest wall, my heart pumping against my chest at the thought of being caught like this. Taking a peek around the corner, I saw Saix crouching by a dark corner, muttering something and doing strange hand motions. In the next second, small figures had rose from the shadows in front of him, and after some more muttering, shrunk back into shadows and scurried down the adjacent hallways.

'_Were those... Heartless? What's Saix doing creating them, I thought that's what he was here to exterminate..._'

Standing back up, Saix turned to double check his surroundings before striding off in the opposite direction of the heartless, a smug smirk on his features. It took me a moment to realize the small shadows were gliding towards the corridor I was standing in. An inner panic attack temporarily immobilizing my body from fear before I shook myself out of it, sprinting in the opposite direction, trying hard to keep my steps and breath light in the acoustic underground.

Hearing the sounds of metal on stone vibrate through the halls, I turned a corner, nearly falling off a ledge into an open space where several corridors met on the levels. On the lower floor were the Organization, battling the small heartless creatures that seemed to fill up the entire room. I collapsed onto the wall adjacent to me, sliding down to sit on the stone floor, my legs curled next to me. I felt safer just being in their presence, the Heartless not having caught me had been another relief.

The Organization fought with skill and grace, their weapons meeting the Heartless that then burst into a black clouds that resembled ink droplets in water. A sudden swell of cold air rolled over me, tickling the back of my neck. I turned around, my voice leaving my throat at the sight of three heartless closing in from behind, their tiny muttering only creeping me out as I further pressed myself into the cold stone wall. Feeling the fear in my heart swell, I closed my eyes, holding up my hands in a futile effort to stop the shadows from coming any loser.

"_Stop!_" I squeaked, turning my face away from the expected pain, though none came. Cracking my eyes open, I saw the creatures that had been advancing on me were now immobilized inside small chunks of ice. I shifted forward onto my hands and knees to examine what I'd done on accident, flicking the left, closest Heartless with my finger, a high pitched _ting_ resonating in the stone arch above me. My lungs released a breath I din't know they'd been holding as I fell back on my butt, my palms on the cold stone keeping me upright.

Being lost in my own thought, I hadn't noticed Xaldin jumping up to my level, taking a second to examine the scene before lancing the center heartless, the shattering ice knocking me back to my senses.

"You okay there, kido?" I took his outstretched hand, him pulling me up effortlessly as I wobbled on my feet.

"Yeah, I guess..." I stared absentmindedly back at the remaining two Heartless.

"That was some pretty decent magic shootin' there, Xigbar could probably help ya with that." By this time, most of the other members had joined us on the stone landing, Larxene being one of them.

"... Did you say magic?"

"What's all the damn commotion up here?" She barked, stashing her set of Foundre throwing knives back in her jacket pocket.

"Looks like Namine used ice magic to freeze these Heartless." Roxas muttered, flicking one with his forefinger just like I had, before shattering it with a well aimed kick.

"Kay, Sherlock." Larxene sneered, folding her arms in her usual pose, "So now we know that Little Bitch here can wield a magic wand. Can we go home now?"


End file.
